Bob and Sooz attended a wedding in Mykonos, then spent some time in England, for a contrast in the weather. Mykonos: hot and glary; England: cold, wet, and glum.
We learned never to fly on Olympic to the Greek islands. They canceled flights the day before we were to return and on our day. No assistance; no refund. We had to take the ferry to Athens and then buy a new ticket back to London.
The objective of the trip to England was to visit gardens. This we did by staying in London and taking train trips north to Cambridge, west to Chippenham and Bath, and south to Kent. By staying in London, we avoided changing hotels every day and enjoyed Chinese, Syrian, and Turkish food. It did require us to make our way to one of London's huge railway stations for each trip, find the train, and spend an hour or so traveling each way. The only big obstacle was that our trip to Bath coincided with University Day at Bristol U--the day that the university invites prospective students to look the place over. The outbound train was packed with the cream of British youth, all with beautiful accents. Not your usual teenage crowd. Coming back, we had to stand part of the way because the train filled completely with returning teenagers in Bristol.
Mykonos
Sunset from our hotel room in Mykonos
We took a short boat trip to the neighboring isle of Delos, with exemplary ruins from the 6th century BC
In the excellent Delos museum, a barbecue set in usable condition, 2600 years old.
Lots of good pictures of cats with large eyes
The Delossians commissioned sculpture portraits, not always flattering
These lions were dug up in the late 19th century and now inhabit the museum
Good mosaics in the ruins
On our first day in England, we were taken on a tour of the Cambridge University Botanic Garden by its director
The trained eye can pick out two gray chicks walking on the lily pads
One surprising thing we learned was that Cambridge is semi-arid, with only about the same amount of annual rainfall as Palo Alto. Worse, it falls in the summer rather than the winter. It has rained like crazy for the past 6 weeks, however, so all is green.
Bowood, near Chippenham, on the way to Bath
House and garden at Bowood
Artificial waterful draining artificial lake
Iford, south of Bath
Ilford, on the same trip, near Bath
Unusual topiaries
Hever Castle, south of London in Kent
Duck family at Hever Castle and garden, our last trip
The glory of monochrome gardening
Topiary chess set
Excellent artificial water
